Nunavut education system: bilingual in name only?

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Nunavut education system in a shambles, report finds
BILL CURRY

OTTAWA -- Nunavut is facing "a moment of crisis" just seven years into the
much-heralded creation of Canada's third territory, suffering from high
unemployment, a 75-per-cent school dropout rate and a host of social ills.
A final report on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement released yesterday
blames the education system for failing to produce literate youth, which
has in turn allowed a situation in which non-Inuit outsiders land most top
government jobs. The report from former B.C. Supreme Court Justice Thomas
Berger found only 45 per cent of the Nunavut government's 3,200 employees
are Inuit, in spite of a promise from Ottawa that the territory's
85-per-cent Inuit population would be reflected at that exact level in
government.

Other findings in the report include:

Only 25 per cent of Inuit students graduate from high school. Rates of
suicide, smoking, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis far
exceed national averages. A special program to increase the number of
Inuit teachers is only graduating between eight and 12 a year, failing to
meet demand. Arctic warming can be seen everywhere in Nunavut, raising
questions of sovereignty, mining exploration and the effect of shifting
migration patterns on animal harvesting. The federal government appointed
Mr. Berger last June to update the progress of governments in living up to
their promises in the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, which remains
the largest land-claims settlement of the modern era.

Mr. Berger found that the Nunavut government "strived mightily" to find
jobs for virtually all qualified Inuit in the territory of nearly 30,000
people. "The problem is that the supply of qualified Inuit is exhausted,"
states the report. Not only do just one-quarter of Inuit children graduate
from high school, but fewer go on to higher education, effectively ruling
out most young Inuit from the better-paying management jobs in which Inuit
are vastly under-represented. Although Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik has
said the Inuit are in a transition stage from a land-based economy to a
modern wage-based economy, the report bluntly concludes that such an
economy does not exist.

"In Nunavut there is no developed wage economy, no industry. Unemployment
is high, averaging 30 per cent but reaching 70 per cent in some
communities. . . . Thus the importance to the Inuit of the Government of
Nunavut as employer," it states. One of the report's main recommendations
is to end the current practice of teaching students entirely in Inuktitut
until Grade 4 or 5, at which point the language of instruction switches
entirely to English.

"It is a bilingual system in name only, one that produces young adults
who, by and large, cannot function properly in either English or
Inuktitut," writes Mr. Berger, who recommends both languages be taught
throughout elementary and secondary school.

But the dysfunctional approach to language is not the only hurdle facing
Inuit students, says the report, which cites an example of a common living
environment.

"Imagine the odds faced by a student attempting to do homework with 12 or
13 other people in the house," it states, noting that the territory's tiny
homes must be shut tight for eight months of the year against the Arctic
cold and that virtually every home has at least one smoker.

"The fact that even one-quarter of Inuit students graduate from high
school is, under the circumstances, a testimony to the tenacity of those
students."

Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said yesterday that he was
still studying the report, which he received March 1, but appeared to pour
cold water on any chance of Ottawa sending more money.

"Significant sums are spent already on that education system. It involves
at this point in time some of the highest per-capita student expenditures
in Canada," he said.

"The very high dropout rates amongst children in Nunavut are a real cause
for concern. . . . I simply point out it's not simply a question of
spending money, and we're also dealing with an area of territorial
jurisdiction."

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